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April 2, 2020
Good Afternoon:
 
Governor Kim Reynolds made a recommendation at her press conference today, that all schools remain closed through April 30th. Our District intends to follow her recommendation which means our potential return date has moved from Monday, April 13th to Friday, May 1st. 
 
During this extended period of time, we will continue to offer our families voluntary educational enrichment opportunities. We will be adding additional, and still optional, materials to The Hub provided directly from our teachers. We will be reaching out in the coming weeks to check in with our students and ask if you need any of our optional materials in paper format. We will continue to work with our teachers to make adjustments to our curriculum so we are ready to go once we are able to return to school.
 
If you watched the press conference today, you might be confused as to whether or not we need to make up the time we miss after April 10th. The answer to that question is no. We are currently providing voluntary education enrichment opportunities. We will continue to do that during the extended closure. By providing these voluntary opportunities we will not be required to make up the additional time we miss from April 10th through April 30th. I am attaching the guidance provided by the Iowa Department of Education that we received today. The section highlighted in yellow indicates what we are doing to educate our students. 
 
I saw the following quote from Dr. Brad Johnson and it struck me as very timely: “Relationships before rigor. Grace before grades. Patience before programs. Love before lessons.” This is a good reminder to make sure we have our priorities in order. Please let me know if you have any question regarding this email.

To read the Procedures for Continuous Learning document, go to https://tinyurl.com/WDContinuousLearning2020.
 
Thank you and take care.

Rick Colpitts, Superintendent
Western Dubuque Community School District
310 4th Street SW, P.O. Box 68
Farley, IA 52046
Phone: 563-744-3885 ext. 6005
Twitter: @RickColpitts61